#Cao Zhi

[popfishjr]

The trio

And also this i think its ugly but i spent a lot of time on this☠️

[tavina-writes]

This is entirely copied from my reblog of this post, but I just thought I'd put this in a post of my own for safekeeping on this hellsite or I'd literally never find the translation of Xingnv's Lament I did for this reblog ever again but. Anyway!

Whenever I think about the fact that like, people claim historical people grieved less about child and infant mortality I want to start biting because here's the translation of the Cao Zhi's poem on losing a daughter (yes the Cao Zhi of the infamous bean poem/Seven Step Quatrain fame) written sometime in the 200s AD: 行女哀辞

序：行女生于季秋，而终于首夏。三年之中，二子频丧。 伊上帝之降命，何修短之难哉；或华发以终年，或怀妊而逢灾。 感前哀之未阕，复新殃之重来！方朝华而晚敷，比晨露而先晞。 感逝者之不追，情忽忽而失度。天盖高而无阶，怀此恨其谁诉！

Xingnv's Lament

Preface: My youngest daughter, Xingnv, was born in late autumn and died in early summer of the following year. In just three years, two beloved daughters died one after another. The heavens grant precious life to people, yet why is the length of that life so hard to guess Some people are fortunate to live to old age, others die young in the womb I have yet to finish grieving for Jinhu*, yet I have to see Xingnv** buried in dust This poor child falls like the hibiscus, life drying like the morning dew I thought of that young life that could never return, and lose my normal composure Resenting that the heavens have no stairs for me to climb, to pour out the sorrows of my heart

*Jinhu is the first child that he mentioned

**Xingnv is the daughter he dedicated this poem to

Like! DESPITE what people will tell you people often grieved their children, yes, even daughters which, historical fiction SO often say that fathers hated having Girl Children or whatever. We only know Cao Jinhu and Cao Xingnv's names because their father wrote them down. And grieved their absence.

"Resenting that the heavens have no stairs for me to climb" is SO bleak and so utterly fucking devastating.

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

-beans of various types-

The fourth son of the Cao household was leading a one-man war in the courtyard of the main house. His name was Cao Zhi, and he was a little boy of five years. Old enough to wear proper trousers, though his hair was still shaved in the middle and braided into two ox-horns on the sides. His sword was a stick, and his horse was a broom. Cao Zhi ran this way and that, leading soldiers that only his eyes could see. 

“Crossbows back, ji forward! Hold fast and prepare to engage!” He had plenty of brothers but preferred to play alone. It wasn’t as much fun, but at least there was no one to scold him for being annoying or twist his arm when he talked back. 

Victory was at hand, such was his concentration, Cao Zhi did not hear the horses arriving at the main gate or the servants rushing out to greet “Lord Cao!” A moment later, a man dressed in a short, plain riding coat stepped quietly into the courtyard and stopped under the shade of a tree to watch him. 

“One more push, men! Calvary to the left and right! We’ll break their arrays and put them to route!”  Most people would have been surprised to hear such a young child recite word-perfect battlefield commands at an age when most were singing nursery rhymes. The man in the shade watched him attentively without speaking a word. There was a complicated expression on his face. 

Cao Zhi turned around and finally noticed that he had attracted an audience. The instant his eyes alighted on the man, his face split into a gap-toothed grin. 

“Eldest Brother! Eldest Brother!” he cried and ran forward with his arms outstretched. Then, he remembered that his half-brother was now a man grown and the Heir Apparent to boot, so giving him a big hug was Not Proper anymore. He quickly stopped and bowed. “Greetings, Elder Brother. Zhi hopes you have travelled well.” 

“I did, thank you,” replied his eldest brother, Cao Ang. He returned the bow, and his movements seemed a hundred times more refined in the boy's eyes. “I trust you’ve been in good health, Fourth Brother?” 

“Yes. I am well.” Cao Zhi said, suddenly feeling very shy. It had been nearly a year since they had last spoken. Cao Ang left home as a brother and returned as a lord, capped and gowned, with a sword at his side and a dusty whip hanging from his belt. Between working in the civil service and accompanying Father on campaigns, there was a noticeable change in his manners and speech. The fifteen years between them suddenly felt as impassable as a mountain. Cao Ang had become impossibly tall, grand and grown-up. Almost more imposing than Father.

Perhaps it would be better if Cao Zhi played in the inner courtyard, out of his brother’s way. “May I take my leave, Eldest Brother?” 

“Hold it,” Cao Ang commanded. His face was stern, but there was no mistaking the humorous twinkle in his eyes. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice? How dare you approach your liege with your weapon bared!” 

Cao Zhi realised that he was still holding onto his stick. He giggled and made a show of putting it into his belt, in place of a scabbard. “Please forgive your vassal’s impudence.”  

“I fail to see what’s so funny, young man.” Cao Ang said, dead serious, which only made his little brother laugh harder. “I could have been run through!” 

It happened just like that. As swiftly as a burst of water unblocking a choked-up stream. Any lingering awkwardness was gone, and the two of them began chatting and laughing like no time had passed.

(To be continued)

[zhoudadudugongjin]

Cao Zhi: What have the Romans ever done for us?

Cao Pi: Grapes

[linggluu]

God of River Lok (1975) pt 2

this man has been handsome all his life

this cao zhi looks like he kill his brother in 7 steps frfr

[reinaka42]

❝Let the story drift away with the river...❞ ꕀ 多情岸 / 【忘川风华录】 Wangchuan gifset — 1/?

[fannyjemwong]

Mitología china: La Leyenda de la Diosa del Río Luo

[tavina-writes]

Whenever I think about the fact that like, people claim historical people grieved less about child and infant mortality I want to start biting because here's the translation of the Cao Zhi's poem on losing a daughter (yes the Cao Zhi of the infamous bean poem/Seven Step Quatrain) fame written sometime in the 200s AD: 行女哀辞

序：行女生于季秋，而终于首夏。三年之中，二子频丧。 伊上帝之降命，何修短之难哉；或华发以终年，或怀妊而逢灾。 感前哀之未阕，复新殃之重来！方朝华而晚敷，比晨露而先晞。 感逝者之不追，情忽忽而失度。天盖高而无阶⑾，怀此恨其谁诉！

Xingnv's Lament

Preface: My youngest daughter, Xingnv, was born in late autumn and died in early summer of the following year. In just three years, two beloved daughters died one after another. The heavens grant precious life to people, yet why is the length of that life so hard to guess Some people are fortunate to live to old age, others die young in the womb I have yet to finish grieving for Jinhu*, yet I have to see Xingnv** buried in dust this poor child falls like the hibiscus, life drying like the morning dew I thought of that young life that could never return, and lose my normal composure Resenting that the heavens have no stairs for me to climb, to pour out the sorrows of my heart

*Jinhu is the first child that he mentioned

**Xingnv is the daughter he dedicated this poem to

Like! DESPITE what people will tell you people often grieved their children, yes, even daughters which, historical fiction SO often say that fathers hated having Girl Children or whatever. We only know Cao Jinhu and Cao Xingnv's names because their father wrote them down. And grieved their absence.

"Resenting that the heavens have no stairs for me to climb" is SO bleak and so utterly fucking devastating.

i have to carefully avoid thinking too hard about any time period before like the 1900s because i start thinking about all the dead babies and i fucking lose it

like!!!! i trully cannot countenance any argument that the past was better when nearly HALF of all young children died. 

[saelterlude]

link click musical list pt.6, (longer bcs i keep accidentally posting these early, gotta make up for the short pt.5)

also hi, this one took a while bcs i keep getting sad over not finding a Wang Yifei-Zhu Hanbin LG uppies clip :')

(pt.1, pt.2, pt.3, pt.4, pt.5, pt.7 here)

81. 24/03/2024 night, Zhu Hanbin wore his shirt inside out lol, there's a good chance it was like that the whole performance since LG actors don't change costume. Also, I love how Zi bowen shouted his name, it's cute.

82. Cai Lu's short vlog, includes Guo Hongxu and Ji Xiaokun karaoke, JXK being bad at basketball, and chilling in the dressing room.

83. 28/03/2024, Cao Muzhi getting manhandled by Cai Lu (I drew it hehe) and also giving the biggest laugh when he won first round of RPS against Zhu Hanbin plss.

84. 01/04/2024, Wu Hanglu bullying Bai Zhuoming, Du Guangyi being aggressive, and BZM being confused and overwhelmed in RPS. If you're asking why DGY shouted his line, it's bcs BZM and WHL were too busy bickering to beckon him to the couch like they're supposed to do. Also, they sing 'Dive Back in Time' together.

85. 29/03/2024, Wang Yifei, please stop bullying Wu Hanglu, don't squish her, look at her, she's tiny. See? Now she's bullying you back.

86. 05/04/2024 night, piglet is back!! Wu Yihan, Cai Qi. WHY ARE YOU BOTH SO MEAN TO THE PIGLET?? WYH does not let CQ play around with RPS (by not doing them at all)

87. 05/04/2024 night, bonus to the performance above. WYH does not hug in "Pursuing Light" for once.

88. 06/04/2024 day, New Cai Qi pair unlocked with Guo Hongxu. Awkward eye contact and GHX just assumes he won RPS when he didn't lol, don't you know CQ cheats? Also, Zuo Yiping looks so short between them, helpp.

89. 30/03/2024 night, Wu Yihan going *finger points* "whos singing the sofa song?", and Qian Dongyue's birthday!

90. 13/04/2024 day, I think, Wang Yifei scared Guo Hongxu with that overly enthusiatic jump hug.

91. 13/04/2024 night, Jing Yanqiao 21st birthday!! Let's go! There's actually a full video of your encore now.

Also, #90 and #91, both GHX and JYQ caught off guard by WYF and ZHB's mic cupping habit during 'Dive Back in Time'

92. 06/04/2024 night, I can't find a clip showing Wu Yihan drinking vinegar, but I can show you Cao Muzhi being cute as he walks across the table. And saying 'be careful' in 'Dive Back in Time' bcs something happened with WYH offscreen, i think he hit a camera.

93. 06/04/2024 night, nevermind! Shimmer to the rescue! Here is Wu Yihan drinking vinegar! (he Du Guangyi-ed himself (#19 and #31))

94. 14/04/2024 day, Guo Hongxu has successfully been influenced to cup their mics. Also, I'm now declaring that Guo Hongxu and Wang Yifei is the perfect disgruntled cat-oversized puppy duo, just look at their hug.

95. 14/04/2024 day, another POV of the performance above so you can see Wang Yifei nod approvingly once GHX uses his method.

96. 14/04/2024 night, just a shortclip of Wang Minhui putting Cai Qi in a headlock.

97. Event clip, mostly just explaining the basketball event itself but I wanna show you all Du Guangyi being bad at basketball in the last 10 seconds.

(speaking of event, the theatre is gonna count which actor scores the most during basketball scene/"Faith of Friendship". me and the musical brainrot gang over in the lc 18+ server are doing bets on which actor is scores the most by the end of the month)

98. 19/04/2024, poor Deng Xianling just wanna tie her shoes, stop bothering her lol.

99. 19/04/2024, same performance as above. English boy Teng Chunpeng is very excited abt basketball.

100. 20/04/2024 night, have Jing Yanqiao, shamefully losing 2-8 to Zhu Hanbin

101. 21/04/2024 day, Bai Zhuoming won the match, he teases Wang Minhui about it the whole encore to the point he messed up the entirety of RPS song lol. (Also, they got 15-12, they were conspiring together)

102. 22/04/2024, Shu Rongbo getting startled by Cai Lu's leg and Du Guangyi adding to the leg jenga is very precious, I wanna draw that. SRB also won basketball 36-0 bcs DGY is a softie granpa, I guess we knows who wins this month.

(and no, as much as i favored him, i did not bet on srb :') )

(also, did i wait for the 22nd so i can get at least 1 srb video this post? yes.)

*Please give a big round of applause to @shimmeringweeds for all xhs clips. I could not navigate that site at all.

Bonus time! Made a list (here!) of Zhu Hanbin and Jing Yanqiao performances the other day, thus that's the bonus clips you're getting for this part. Please check them out, they're really cool.

But I guess I might as well add this funny video of Cai Qi and Cao Muzhi performing 'Mia Famiglia' from Apollonia musical. It's gold, just for the fact that CQ acts as if he's in a drama while CMZ acts as if he's in a comedy.

[popfishjr]

[mqfx]

shengfen tbh

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

i JUST NOW understood that in cao zhi's (misattributed) bean poem, it's the beans in the pot talking to the beanstalks in the fire. "we sprang from the self-same root, why must you burn me with fire hot?" riiiiight. OK! that makes way more sense! yeah that is actually super poignant! idk why i thought the beans were talking to each other in a "we're all in the same boat" kinda way. this poem btw: the beans were boiling over a bean-stalk fire from the pot came a plaintive cry; "we sprang from the self-same root, why must you burn me with fire hot?"

[zhoudadudugongjin]

[kdram-chjh]

Cdrama: Hero is Back (2024)

So romantic~ 😍 | YOUKU COSTUME #镇魂街之热血再燃 #heroisback #敖瑞鹏 #张予曦 #金珈 #陈紫函 #刘美彤 #shorts #youku

Watch this video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gJsKTh3acLo

[linggluu]

God of River Lok (1975) pt 1

Adam Cheng as Cao Zhi

[niteshade925]

Apr 11, Xi'an, China, Beilin Museum (Stele Forest):

Continuing from the previous post about the museum... I have a LOT of pictures from this trip to Xi'an, almost 900 pictures total. For the sake of brevity, I will not post all of them.

Jingyun Bell/景云钟:

The Jingyun bell is a giant bronze bell cast in 711 AD (Tang dynasty), this bell was originally inside the Bell Tower of Xi'an/西安钟楼, and bear the inscription written by Emperor Ruizong of Tang/唐睿宗 (full name Li Dan/李旦). This bell is 2.47 m tall (~8.1 ft), has a circumference of 4.86 m (~15.9 ft), has a diameter (at opening) of 1.65 m (~5.4 ft), and weighs 6 metric tons (~6.6 US tons).

Fun fact about Emperor Ruizong of Tang Li Dan: apparently he has the nickname of "六位帝皇丸", or "Six Emperors Wan". "六味地黄丸" is the name of a prescription in traditional Chinese medicine, but here it's used as a pun. This is because Li Dan himself had been emperor twice, his father Li Zhi/李治 was the emperor (Emperor Gaozong of Tang/唐高宗) before him , his mother Wu Zetian/武则天 made him cede the throne to her and became emperor after his first reign (Emperor Zetian Dasheng/则天大圣皇帝), his older brother Li Xian/李显 was an emperor (Emperor Zhongzong of Tang/唐中宗), and finally after his second reign, he ceded the throne to his son Li Longji/李隆基 (Emperor Xuanzong of Tang/唐玄宗). So that's the 6 emperors, and they all came from himself and his immediate family.

Just in case that was confusing, here's his family tree:

One more fun fact about the bell itself: it provided the bell sound sample heard at midnight in CCTV New Year's Gala every year. The bell itself probably won't be sounded anymore for conservation purposes--it is over 1300 years old at this point. The bell currently inside the Bell Tower of Xi'an is a replica.

Classic of Filial Piety Set Upon Stone/石台孝经:

This stele is also among the most famous in the Beilin Museum, as it combines the calligraphy work of two emperors of Tang dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang/唐玄宗 Li Longji/李隆基, and his son, Emperor Suzong of Tang/唐肃宗 Li Heng/李亨, and also has excellent examples of 4 different scripts. Specifically, Li Longji wrote the Classic of Filial Piety/孝经 (a Confucian classic text) and annotated it in lishu/clerical script/隶书, then added comments in xingshu/semi-cursive script/行书. Li Heng wrote the title in zhuanshu/seal script/篆书 (see picture of the actual stele below), and a memorial written in kaishu/regular script/楷书 by Imperial College Chief/国子监祭酒 Li Qigu/李齐古.

Since the stele actually has inscriptions on all four sides, here's the complete rubbing:

Here's the pavilion over the stele, picture from Wikipedia. The bian'e/匾额 (can be understood as a sign) says "stele forest"/碑林 (read from right to left), and was by Lin Zexu/林则徐 (1785 - 1850). The exact reason why 碑 is missing a stroke at the top is unclear, but one thing is certain: that was one of the correct ways to write the character. It's just that modern standardized systems of written Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional) only accept 碑 as the correct form.

Cao Quan Stele/曹全碑:

One of the most famous steles in the museum. This stele, which praised Cao Quan's accomplishments, was written by Wang Chang/王敞 and was erected in 185 AD (late Eastern Han dynasty). It is important for two reasons, first is because it represents lishu/clerical script/隶书 at its full maturity by the end of Eastern Han dynasty. The second reason is because it provides a great source for scholars studying the history of that time, particularly with regard to the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

A closeup at the calligraphy:

Li Mountain Hot Springs Poem/骊山温泉诗:

This one isn't particularly famous, but it is one of my personal favorites from the exhibition. The calligraphy was by Prince Guo/果亲王 of Qing dynasty (full name Aisin Gioro Yunli/爱新觉罗·允礼) in 1735, and is in the xingshu/semi-cursive/行书 script.

Emperor's Calligraphy Work in Daguan Period/大观圣作之碑:

This stele is actually not part of the Beilin Museum's collection, since it's currently located in Zhaozhou, Hebei, China. I thought I should include it here, because the writing is in a script that I've never really talked about before, which is the shoujinti/"slim gold script"/瘦金体. It's a variation of kaishu/regular script/楷书 that's invented by Emperor Huizong of Song/宋徽宗 Zhao Ji/赵佶, who is the calligrapher here, hence the title.

A closeup of the calligraphy:

Stele of an Imperial Edict/加圣号诏碑:

By Zhao Shiyan/赵世延 in 1313 (Yuan dynasty). The content is an imperial edict in 1307 that posthumously bestowed the title of "Great Completer, Ultimate Sage and Exalted King of Culture"/大成至圣文宣王 upon Confucius. The purpose of this picture is just to show what the bigger steles really look like, as ink rubbings definitely don't do them justice. The top is decorated with two carved dragons, and the stele is mounted on a stone bixi/赑屃, one of the 9 sons of the loong that has remarkable strength and looks like a turtle (with teeth).

And finally a pagoda tree/槐树 outside the museum that is 1100 years old (planted at around the end of Tang dynasty):